Marian Wright Edelman

Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the
Children's Defense Fund (CDF), has been an advocate for
disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional career. Under
her leadership, the Washington-based CDF has become a strong
national voice for children and families. The mission of the
Children's Defense Fund is to Leave No Child BehindĀ and to ensure every child
a Healthy Start,
a Head Start,
a Fair Start,
a Safe Start,
and a Moral Start
in life with the support of caring families and communities.

Mrs. Edelman, a graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, began her career in
the mid-60s when, as the first black woman admitted to the
Mississippi Bar, she directed the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi. In l968, she moved
to Washington, D.C., as counsel for the Poor People's March that Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., began organizing before his death. She
founded the Washington Research Project, which was the parent body
of the Children's Defense Fund. For two years she served as the
Director of the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University,
and in 1973 began CDF.

Mrs. Edelman served on the Board of Trustees of Spelman College which she chaired
from 1976 to 1987 and was the first woman elected by alumni as a
member of the Yale University Corporation on which she served from
1971 to 1977. She has received many honorary degrees and awards
including the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize, the Heinz Award,
and a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship. In 2000, she received
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian
award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her
writings, which include five books: Families in Peril: An Agenda
for Social Change; the #1 New York Times bestseller, The
Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours;
Guide My Feet: Meditations and Prayers on Loving and Working for
Children; a children's book titled Stand for Children;
and most recently, Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors, published
in 1999.

Marian Wright Edelman is married to Peter Edelman, a Professor at Georgetown Law School.
They have three sons: Joshua, Jonah, and Ezra.